Jaipur: The Pink City

2 Comments Posted in: India | By: Jami | November 19, 2013

Jaipur was our first stop in Rajasthan. Rajasthan contains incredibly diverse terrain and rich in cultural history: stories of war, princesses, kings and filled with majestic palaces and fortresses.

Jaipur is also the largest city in Rajasthan and also known as the “pink” city. However, it really is less pink more of a terra-cotta. It is also a shoppers paradise, as the whole town is transformed into a marketplace to purchase whatever you may desire from gold jewelry to varies shapes and sizes of sugar to textiles which are dyed in the street. The marketplaces are a labyrinth and it’s easy to lose your way as each street looks exactly the same: “pink” shopping stalls.

Pink city gates: opens to the old city

Old city streets are lined with shops and of course traffic and cows.

Freshly dyed fabric/textiles drying

The occasional tout

Shops line the old city

Spice row

Any kind of salt your heart desires

Dying fabric in the streets

Jaipur is also home to many important and gorgeous sites to which we saw on a one day bus tour we signed up for that cost us each 300 rupees or $3.20 for the whole day. I normally don’t like the tour routine of getting on and off the bus, being limited on time, the whole packed sight-seeing trip but there was so much to see, a lot of ground to cover and we only had a couple of days in Jaipur, so this tour was perfect. I also liked the fact that mostly, other than 2 Spanish girls, the tour was filled with Indians. I liked hearing the translation and seeing their expressions in their reaction to what I had just heard in English. Now the sights, summarized and paraphrased for blog purposes:

The sights:

The City Palace:

Gorgeous layout, awesome history. I really loved a room that displayed the evolution of royal Indian garbs and turbans that start with 30 feet of cloth (they wouldn’t allow pictures). The palace was quick to display decadence and wealth with silver and gold details, diamond chandeliers, and detailed architecture, often painted or carved. The royal family still lives on site today.

Aaron towering over the guards

Me, trying to act Indian

Gorgeous doors, so high elephants can arrive through the entrance

The entrance to the palace; all carved stone

Jantar Mantar:

This wasn’t our first Jantar Mantar, which translates to “calculation instrument.” We had seen one in Delhi but this was much more impressive. Much of this goes over my head, Aaron understands much more, but these constructions measure time – down to the minute, track stars positions, and predict eclipses. And their scale is tremendous – world’s largest sun-dial. Apparently the founder of the Pink city, Maharaja Jai Singh II, was an avid astrologer. Hey, I love astrology too. And here is a pic of me next to the Pisces calculator.

Aaron next to the world’s largest sun-dial; about 90 feet tall

Me, next the to Pisces calculator

Hawa Mahal/ The Palace of Winds:

Smack in the center of the old city. It is lined with hundreds of windows so that the women: wives and concubines could look out to the bustle of the city, but no city dweller could look in.

Hundreds of windows look out onto the street; in the famous “pink”

Amber Fort and Palace:

Which what seemed like a ton of Palaces inside a palace protected by a huge fort, our bus had to park and from there we grouped up for the jeep ride up. The Palace sits above a beautiful pool of water but the views from the top allow you to look out for miles. The palaces are filled with gardens and temples. My favorite palace was one that was built out of mirrors to which the sun would cause it to shine. The detailed mirror designs and cuts were exquisite. I felt like I was walking through a gorgeous piece of pottery. This was a huge tourist spot and it seemed those not on an official tour were waiting hours to get in.

On a palace roof to take in views

One of the many halls of the one of the many palaces

Gorgeous gardens

Mirror palace

More detail

Can’t get enough of the bright ladies

More palace detail; all walls are hand painted

The long lines; women and children of course in their own line

Palace overlooking the water where we picked up our jeeps

Palace overlooking a lake where we picked up our jeeps

And at sunset

Jaigarh Fort:

Next to the Amber fort, because Jaipur needed another fort, stands the Jaigarh Fort. As we parked we noticed the place lined with monkeys. Once inside, you quickly realized who ran this place: Monkeys were everywhere. They roamed the fort and even made it difficult to pass at times, as I am afraid of them. The fort holds the largest cannon in the world, which I’m sure if you are into military weaponry and strategy you would get super excited about.

Monkeys line the fort

They may look cute, but these guys are mean

A fort with a view

Nahargarh Fort, also known as Tiger Fort:

I know. Another fort. The big stand out here were the views, that and Aaron and I could sit and eat and have a beer. Inside the place was rather sad with a lot of vandalism. But once you got to the top and looked out across the pink city and the country side it was worth it.

Spectacular views

Ahhh to sit and have a drink.

Jal Mahal, also known as The Water Palace:

Structured in the middle of the lake, this site was stunning. The reflection, overlooking the countryside, the sunset and the birds flying overhead made this one of my favorite sites of all of India. For me, this architectural beauty just made me feel at peace within the craziness of Jaipur’s old city about 2 miles away. At night it lights up, making the lake glow orange.

The peaceful water palace

We also visited a few temples along the way that had some great views and fashioned in exotic Indian/Middle Eastern architecture. We also realized that our tour tickets were probably so cheap due to the fact that we had to stop at three tourist/gift shops along the way, so India.

Aaron goofing at one of the gift shops

While there was a ton to see of the Pink City, it was just the beginning of experience in Rajasthan. Next we would see Udaipur: The Lake City, Jaisalmer: The Golden City and Jodhpur: The Blue City.

Even the train station; Pink!

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